Weatherwise or Otherwise

By David Mendosa

"Some are weatherwise,
Some are otherwise."

Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

A nother sunny day
in paradise?" Or, "Aren't there any seasons here?"
We've all heard these stereotypes about our weather. But even
here in sunny Southern California the weather keeps changing.
Those of us who live here know that's just its nature. Why else
would we talk about liquid sunshine?

These days some people are doing more than talking about the
weather. They've found new and creative ways to package and sell
it. A key element in the success of USA Today as a national
newspaper, for example, is its colorful map and detailed weather
information. It seems that more weather information is available
everywhere you look, from the local newspaper to the news radio
to the television tube.

The only problem is in finding up-to-date information when you
want it. Fortunately, the solution is as close at hand as your
radio, your telephone, or your computer.

For many people the best choice will be a radio station that
calls itself KIH34. In the first place, if you have the right
equipment, it's free. This is the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration station broadcasting at 162.400 MHz
from Broadcast Peak near Santa Barbara. It broadcasts local
weather information non-stop. The KIH34 weather report is also
comprehensive. It covers not only air and water temperatures and
chance of rain but also barometric pressure, wind direction and
speed, small craft, wind, and weather advisories, and extended
forecasts.

Even if you don't have electricity, you can
still receive KIH34. Of course everybody has electricity--except
when you are in your car, your boat, out hiking, etc. If you want
to get weather information in those places, KIH34 is still
available. All you will need is what electronics buffs call a
portable weather radio or a portable scanning receiver (or
scanner, but not to be confused with a computer peripheral of the
same name).

The inexpensive weather radio is a gadget that's limited to the
three frequencies that NOAA uses to broadcast weather information
throughout the country (the other two frequencies, not heard
locally, are 162.450 MHz and 162.550 MHz).

A scanner is a type of radio that lets you listen in on police,
fire, and other public service broadcasts in VHF and UHF bands.
You can listen to over 800 frequencies locally, and one of them
is the weather report on KIH34 at 162.400 MHz.

One other source of weather information on the radio is
inherently less local. With a shortwave radio you can get weather
information for both the North Pacific and North Atlantic areas
on the two National Institute of Standards and Technology time
signal stations we receive locally. These are WWV in Fort
Collins, Colorado, and WWVH, in Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii. At WWV a
male announcer broadcasts weather information between the 8th and
11th minute after the hour. At WWVH a female announcer broadcasts
the weather between the 48th and 51st minute after the hour.

Since short waves are propagated better after dark, these
stations come in clearer then. These stations broadcast on many
different frequencies, all of them easy to remember numbers. You
will probably find that in the late evening WWV comes in clearly
at 5,000 kHz and WWVH a little less clearly at 10,000 kHz. During
daylight hours your best chance for good reception is WWV at
15,000 kHz.

If you have cable television, you can get continuous weather information on the Weather Channel.

With a touch tone telephone you have even more choices for
weather information. Most of these choices, however, cost money,
either in long distance charges or 900 number surcharges.

USA Today capitalizes on its experience with delivering catchy
weather information in daily print by taking it one step further.
Now, you can call their 900 number for what is probably the
slickest approach to delivering the weather report. They call it
"Weather Track." Their number is (900) 370-USAT or in numbers
(900) 370-8728. You start by entering the area code of the city for
which you want weather information. To get Santa Barbara's
weather punch in 805 and then 2 for Santa Barbara (1 is for
Bakersfield). The report is comprehensive with temperature,
relative outdoor temperature, cloud cover, wind direction and
speed, relative humidity, and barometric pressure. Beyond that,
it includes the following day's and extended forecasts as well as
road conditions and average highs and lows and chance of rain.

Another 900 number, this one run by Accu-weather, Inc., and
sponsored by American Express, has similar but less comprehensive
information. You can reach them by calling (900) WEATHER or in
numbers (900) 932-8437. With this service after entering the 805
area code, you obtain Santa Barbara weather information by
punching in the first three letters of its name, in other words
SAN or 726. Besides temperature, cloud cover, relative humidity,
wind speed and direction, and chance of rain, this report also
has something they call the "heat index" as well as the forecast
for the following day.

A call to Los Angeles or Santa Maria will also get you a 24-hour
recording of National Weather Service information. These numbers
are (213) 554-1212 and (805) 925-0909.

If you have an account with CompuServe, you can get a
similar report of local weather information on your monitor. At
the CompuServe prompt just type the letters WEA. The system
automatically selects the local forecast based on the local
number you're dialing. To get a forecast from a different area,
just type WEA and the city, postal abbreviation for the state or
WEA and city airport code.

The Prodigy service also has weather information on line. To look
at Santa Barbara's weather just type w santa barbara. This
presents the report for the current date as well as the forecast
for three days into the future. Accu-weather is the source of
Prodigy's information.

Sailors and aircraft pilots are two groups of people requiring even
more specialized and detailed weather information. The Waterfront
Department of the City of Santa Barbara has a 24-hour recording
on 962-0782. Besides the usual weather report, it's the place to
call to find the water temperature, the time and height of the
tides, and when the sun rises and sets. The National Weather
Service and the University of Southern California also have a 24-
hour recording of marine weather on a Los Angeles number, (213)
477-1463.

But where can you find out how much it rained last night,
if such a blessed event would indeed occur? For such information,
human voices are ready to answer your question. They are at the
two locations in the area where we maintain official rain gauges.
These are the Wastewater Treatment Plant and Gibraltar Dam. Their
numbers are 966-5597 and 682-4451 respectively. People working
there tell me they will be glad to tell you how much liquid
sunshine fell last night on our paradise by the Pacific.

An edited version of this article appeared as "Which Way Is The Weather?"
Commerce, February 1991, page 14.